[time-nuts] Yukon Energy causes time sync problems

[J. Forster]

"Sergeant Preston" was a character in a radio (and perhaps early TV) show.
He weas a Mountie, as in RCMP, the Canadian Federal police. You know, red
coats, campaign hats, lots of leather belting, horses, and  they always
get their man.

Also as in Dudley DoRight.

-John

==============



> Hi Brooke,
>
> Still having fun with this.
>
> Looked up Yukon Energy, expecting to find something in Alaska. Wrong.
> The company is in Yukon Territory, Canada (On, you huskies ...). It
> has three hydro plants that generate 75 megawatts for 1700 customers.
> It sells some of that power to Yukon Electric, which implies tie lines
> but may be DC.
>
> They have 39 megawatts of diesel generators on standby, perhaps for
> when the river freezes up, or a log gets into a turbine.
>
> Although the picture in the article shows computer monitors, the story
> says that their reference clock is not digital:
>
> "Morgan said staff at the control centre synchronize the time between
> a sophisticated but regular electric wall clock fed by a dead-accurate
> satellite signal as a means of keeping power generation in check."
>
> I guess "dead-accurate" is close enough for power company work, surely
> better than "dead wrong."
>
> "Regular wall clock" implies a synchronous clock, possibly a twin to
> the clock connected to the local generator bus. But maybe it just looks
> like a regular clock, and runs on 100 Hz. I can tell you that the 1 KHz
> clock in the HP-113 sang so loudly it would drive you from the room.
>
> In my youth, I took electric clocks apart to see what made them hum.
> There was always a gear train between the motor and the hands, with
> no possibility of anything slipping. Unless, that is, the thing is so
> old that the holes in the brass plates that hold the gear shafts have
> worn enough to let gear teeth slip.
>
> The other thing that can slow a synchronous clock is that the oil in
> the gear case attached to the motor has turned to tar. Old clocks could
> sometimes be saved by carefully drilling a small hole (don't get chips
> inside) and injecting a bit of solvent. The motor is so heavily loaded
> that it slips out of synch and runs as a shaded pole induction motor,
> at less than synchronous speed.
>
> Seeking precision time can indeed take some strange directions.
>
> Bill Hawkins
>
> Don't understand the reference to huskies? Google "Challenge of the
> Yukon" or "Sergeant Preston"
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brooke Clarke
> Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2010 12:58 PM
> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> Subject: [time-nuts] Yukon Energy causes time sync problems
>
> Hi:
>
> http://whitehorsestar.com/archive/story/time-passed-more-slowly-over-the-eas
> ter-holiday/
>
> --
> Have Fun,
>
> Brooke Clarke
> http://www.PRC68.com
>
>
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